from "​Double Cousins" by Ralph Hammersborg,  A Norwegian Family Chronicle, produced in 1996

Ralph Hammersborg had asked his Mother’s cousins to write about their lives.  The cousins stories are taken from "Double Cousins by Ralph Hammersborg, A Norwegian Family Chronicle, produced in 1996.”   Birth dates of living relatives have been removed from the original text.

1932 - Carl Hillard Johnson   
Son of Johnie & Marie Johnson

Written in 1996

Carl was born in January 11, 1932; but a birth certificate obtained in 1985 from Olympia, Washington for the purpose of obtaining a passport to go to Israel, and signed by Dr. C. C. Hills and Johnie M. Johnson, shows a birth date of January 4.  Mom Johnson said that the above named men were confused.

Carl was born in the house on “Klander Place”, corner of Highway 99 and Grandview R. halfway between Ferndale, Washington and Custer.  The house still stands, though unoccupied and grown over with vines.  Carl, Cecilia, and Marian drove over to see it from the Ferndale Campground in July 1993.  Just to see it, though abandoned, was neat.

A childhood memory, though I can't authenticate it, was standing at a front window of that house and seeing an auto attempt to cross the railroad tracks which ran between the house and Highway 99, and the car being hit and dragged down the tracks.

Ferndale Central, and Junior High School provided memories of Miss Gunderson, Miss Morrow, Mrs. MacConahuey (?), and Mr. Johnson was the principal. I didn't like him to come out on the school grounds to hit baseballs to the kids, because he hit line drives.  Mickey Crawford was my favorite.  He hit high fly balls.  He was also our bus driver.  How many times did he sit and wait for us to come running down the “Brown” road to get to the bus?  Mickey was also the janitor at the grade school.  And don't forget Wilda Hawkins.  In the Junior High it was Wilfred Gunderson, Johnie Monroe - band and orchestra, Mr. Irvin, and Principal Alvin Gregor.

In July 1947 a union representative came to our home on the Brown road along with Rev. Johnson of the Swedish Baptist Church to tell us of the disappearance of dad off a fish trap in Icy Straits in Alaska.  Drowning was the only explanation, though I understand that the company had to investigate and rule out piracy or a planned disappearance.

Physical accidents are still strong memories from Ferndale.  Dad liked to gather the grass that the county road department cut along the old Ferndale-Blaine highway.  I remember riding on the top of the load of slippery grass in the Model A pick-up, and it shifting as Dad drove toward home.  I have no remembrance of hitting the highway but remember waking up at home some time later.  Carl and Pearl were, as children, trying their hand at cutting wood in the woodshed.  Pearl was putting the small pieces on the chopping block.  Carl was wielding the axe.  As he was in the midst of the downward swing, Pearl chose to straighten the piece.  Result: cut hand tendons, bone, etc. But all fixed up by the doctor.  Those country doctors were pretty great.  Remember Norman's crushed leg, as a water barrel slipped from the back of a pick-up and fell on him.  Another time, Bud was drawing water from with a rope and bucket from the creek-bed well for the cattle.  He tumbled in trying to get a bit more water from the nearly dry well.  I went screaming to the house for Mom's help.  When we got back Bud had climbed out, none the worse.  Pearl and Beverly Roberson took a spill, from a bicycle going down Roberson's hill.  I despised Orval R., who said Pearl was OK because she was crying.  He was concerned about Beverly who seemed shocked and not crying.  Pooh!  Volume of crying was always the best barometer of how much a person was hurt, or how hard he was spanked. Remember when Myrtle tumbled down the stairs in the Ferndale house.  I thought that's what made her deaf.

In February 1949 after the Brown Road home was sold (to an elderly couple from Seattle who wanted to try gentleman farmer life) and a home was purchased in Clearview, we moved to that place, near Snohomish.  We attended Mrs. Evans little Clearview church for a while but then chose to go to Snohomish Free Methodist where the McClurgs and Iversons attended.  That choice opened hundreds of doors of influence and association for Carl, for the rest of his life.

He sang in a high school boys quartet in the church, under Nora Williams.

Returning to the church some years later, he met Joann McDaniel, and it was there that they were married on August 24, 1956.  

Running in track competition became a big part of Carl's life - a mile runner in high school, and a 2-mile race in college.  This gave an opportunity for travel including the NAIA national championships in Abilene, Texas in early June 1954.  Carl attended Seattle Pacific College, graduating also in 1954.  He entered the door of opportunity during college, arranged by his brother, Bud, to work two summers in the fishing business into Tenakee, Alaska.

After college, Carl started his ministry career as youth pastor under Rev. S. E. Fosket at the Bellingham Free Methodist Church.  That was only part-time and he worked in the laundry at the Whatcom County Hospital also. Rev. Fosket was pastor in the Blaine Free Methodist Church when Mom and Dad lived there, and remembered the family somewhat.

In September 1955 Carl traveled to Wilmore, Kentucky to begin seminary training at Asbury. In 1956 Joann accompanied him there after their marriage.  That was a valuable and challenging 1 1/2 years as we got a glimpse of life south of the Mason-Dixon line.  But there was also the benefits of many friendships developed there.

Carl has served Free Methodist Churches in Burien and Everett, and was for six years the Youth & CE Minister at First Free Methodist, the Seattle Pacific College Church.  He worked on youth camp programs and was Director of a Pacific Northwest regional youth camp that was held in the central Oregon mountain, Camp Santiam.  He also was heavily involved in the development of the Warm Beach Conference Grounds, spending hundreds and hundreds of hours in volunteer labor.

In 1972 Carl began a ministry with the Covenant denomination, with Rev. Roy Erickson at Seattle First Covenant.  We bought a home in Ballard, 73rd and 33rd NW, that still has special memories for us.

In January 1978 we moved to San Andreas, California and began what is now 18 years of ministry at Community Covenant.  The family's life has become deeply ingrained into the church, the community, and the families of San Andreas and Calaveras County.

Carl and Joanne are parents to three children.

Elaine Marie was born at Burien Hospital. She went to North Park College and earned her BS in nursing.  She now lives in San Andreas, is married to Steven Airola, a lawyer and member of a pioneer family of the county.  They have two children.  “Karen Ann and Kenton Carl (and a third child due in November 1995).

Marlene Joann was born at Madison Avenue Hospital in Seattle.  She attended North Park College and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  She was married to Michael Leary and has two children, Michaela Christine and Ian Scott.  She is married to Brad Brawner, a business partner in Pullman & Brawner Auto Repair in San Andreas.  Brad has a daughter, Danielle, which makes them a family of 5. A fourth child is due in January 1996.

Lon Paul Johnson was born in Riverton Hospital in south Seattle.  He attended North Park and graduated with a degree in Biblical studies.  He also attended Asbury Theological Seminary for two years and completed seminary at North Park. He met and married Julie Hedges, from Bluffton, Indiana, who also earned her BS in nursing at North Park College.  They are living in Eureka, California where Lon serves as Associate and Youth Pastor at the Covenant Church. They have three children, Katelyn Marie, Brandon Keith, and Adelyn Jo.

And so the journey continues. There has been no specific reference above to the Christian faith that first came alive in Johnie and Marie Johnson, and is carrying now down to the 4th generation.  But our parents coming to Faith to Jesus Christ in the Methodist Church in Blaine, Washington in the 1920’s has made the tenor of this story what it is.

Click on a link below to continue with the JOHNSON FAMILY photos and stories.

Same links as the Home page

Johnson Family (home)  - Kinstories (home)  -  Susag Family  -  Flatau Family  -  Beckman Family
Granquist Family  -  Anderson Family  -  Stout Family  -  Walker Family  -  Peterson Family  -  Morris Family  - Cauble Family